Alex Johansson

Alex Johansson

@alexvscoding.bsky.social

Award winning experimental designer, educator and maker from Yorkshire. Advocate for approachable design, makes playful experiences for those marginalised by tech, most recently people with dementia. https://presskit.itch.io/alex-johansson-presskit

190 followers53 following137 posts

Just tested out the "Don't Miss" modifier to MORSE, a very brutal new challenge where every artillery shell that doesn't hit an enemy target takes a life off you. Turns out that's an excellent motivator for accuracy, 828 shells fired, only 6 misses! #morsecode #MORSE #hamradio

If you were a fan of Isle of Arrows but wanted to lean further into designing beautiful walled gardens, then I can highly recommend The Merchant's Eden. 🌲🪻🏰🐃🌲

Alex Johansson@alexvscoding.bsky.social

The Merchant's Eden is 100% my game of the year, The tension between needing to expand and optimise my settlement with preserving the historic charm of the winding streets, Mediterranean trees and leaving ample room for the foundations of my church was such a fun and refreshing challenge.

The Merchant's Eden is 100% my game of the year, The tension between needing to expand and optimise my settlement with preserving the historic charm of the winding streets, Mediterranean trees and leaving ample room for the foundations of my church was such a fun and refreshing challenge.

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The Merchant's Eden is sitting at "Mostly Positive" on Steam shortly after release, in part because it does not cater to expectations of established TD norms. Not to say it's without faults, but indies willing to step outside of norms in this bleak market is something I think should be celebrated.

The Merchant's Eden is 100% my game of the year, The tension between needing to expand and optimise my settlement with preserving the historic charm of the winding streets, Mediterranean trees and leaving ample room for the foundations of my church was such a fun and refreshing challenge.

The best bit is that creative expression wasn't objective driven, I just fancied making my defences aesthetically pleasing, which when contrasted against a lot of of tower defence games that are highly punitive for anything less than optimal placement was a real breath of fresh air.

I had a lot of fun with this game, worth supporting the dev 🔎🐴

sketbordcat@sketbordcat.bsky.social

Horse Magnifier: The Full Horse, the full game about magnifying horses, is out now for $2.99 on steam and itch there will be a discount of 10% for the first week after release hope you enjoy these horsies! store.steampowered.com/app/4585340/... sketbordcat.itch.io/horse-magnif...

MORSE was selected for the @yogscast.games' Tiny Teams festival! Grab the game here for 20% off and start your journey into mastering the secret skill of telegraphy. store.steampowered.com/app/1976860/...

store.steampowered.comSave 20% on MORSE on SteamVanquish the Kaiser's Imperial Fleet using timing, tactics and telegraphy in MORSE, a minimalist strategy game that teaches you the secret language of Morse code. Can you change the world with the pus...
Alex Johansson@alexvscoding.bsky.social

Telecommunicate, illuminate, eliminate. Learn the secret language of Morse Code and vanquish the advancing imperial fleet. #morsecode #hamradio #gamedev

Hey folks! Weird request. I got featured in EDGE magazine issue #415 with MORSE, I had a friend send me a copy of it but it got lost in the mail. Does anyone have a copy they’d be willing to sell me? I’d really appreciate it ♥️

Recently I've been designing games for people living locally with dementia, using familiar objects such as teapots, watering cans and walking sticks as the controllers to play with. The Sheffield Star covered the story today with a front page mention, which I'm very grateful for!

I am unfortunately abroad when this is on, but wanted to show my support for this. In the current industrial landscape, games focused on communities and not platforms is desperately needed. Wishing the organisers well with the event!

Games Garden@gamesgardenparty.bsky.social

As our first order of business, we cordially invite you to a party. The inaugural Games Garden Party is part unconference and part games show-and-tell. Join us in NW London on June 27th for an afternoon of chats and games. For more info and to sign up head to luma.com/ojjo1frd

Running alternative controller workshops with people living with dementia next month, for which I've worked with @nachimir.bsky.social to make crocodile clips for older hands: + Magnetic lead clamp for easy connection + Larger surface area so less fiddly to handle + Familiar form of a clothes peg

For full clarity as well, David did the beautiful custom form factors for the magnet clamps, I soldered a clothes peg to the far end of the wire, slightly different levels of effort exerted : )

Very excited to share that MORSE, my strategy game that teaches Morse Code got featured in RadCom, the UK's national Amateur Radio magazine! Always a thrill seeing the game in print, thanks to the RSGB for covering the project! #morse #morsecode #rsgb #hamradio #games

Just in case there's any ambiguity, April fools : )

Alex Johansson@alexvscoding.bsky.social

Extremely excited to announce I've secured a partnership with @johnromero.bsky.social to bring the DOOMhandle to market, stay tuned for more details! 🔥🚪🔥 #doom #gamedev #games

I am really looking forward to this next week! Props to Susie and the team for bringing it all together.

susie@susepicious.bsky.social

I was invited to guest curate a V&A late! Please come along to Player/Performer at V&A South Kensington on 27th March for a night of games and performances. We have karaoke, LARP, drag, card games, videogames, robots and MORE Totally free and no tickets needed www.vam.ac.uk/event/Wl9jvz...

I am extremely excited to announce that MORSE now has 3 dedicated training modes to sharpen your telegraphy skills - Calibration, Speed and Listening! Really chuffed with how seamlessly these educational modes integrate into the game. #hamradio #screenshotsaturday #indiedev #gamedev #games #morse

Nice to see MORSE getting a mention on here! "I could describe it as a kind of tower-defence real-time twist on Battleships, but really it’s a frantic and frequently overwhelming game about using Morse to fight off incoming enemies and it’s utterly original in all the important aspects." WHEEEEEE

Dr Florence Smith Nicholls@florencesn.bsky.social

This week on the Bathysphere we have an essay by Chris on getting lost in a video game city: buttondown.com/Bathysphere/...

"Even if we can't go to the store together anymore, there are ways the games I've connected with her can still hold a special place." A very sweet writing by Jesse about games, care and intergenerational bonds 🍃

JessEviltelli@mamavitelli.bsky.social

Wrote a little personal essay about Pokemon Leaf Green and my grandmother send-news.beehiiv.com/p/send-news-...

Here's a preview of one of MORSE's 3 new training modes: Test your ability recognising the sound of letters in Morse Code. Update arriving next week! 👂⚫ ⚫◼️ ⚫◼️⚫ #hamradio #morsecode #morse #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #games

Very excited to be finally adding a calibration tutorial to MORSE, so folks can have a better understanding of how to tweak their telegraph. Coming soon! 🎚️ #hamradio #morsecode #gamedev #games

Here's what that outreach mode looks like in practice: MORSE is currently on display in Strasbourg, so I tracked down the name of the local (REF67) and national (REF) amateur radio clubs and added them to MORSE to give players a direct local connection to engaging with the hobby.

Alex Johansson@alexvscoding.bsky.social

Pushed an update out for MORSE today with a suite of features to support Amateur Radio including an outreach mode for radio clubs to use, a non-visual Morse input mode, support for Vband and more! Read about it here: store.steampowered.com/news/app/197... #hamradio #morse #gamedev #morsecode

My 2026 prediction is that as devs lean harder into the harmful aesthetics and mechanisms of an explicitly addictive industry, the escalating arms race of indie gambling "simulators" will quietly rot games from the inside out. It's wild how the scourge of Loot Boxes faded from memory so quickly.

Joshua Rivera@jmrivera.bsky.social

Talked a bit about this for my submission to the culture journalist podcast’s 2026 predictions but the new cool is in offline objects and spaces you can post online evidence of participating in. theculturejournalist.substack.com/p/2026-cultu...

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Whilst no money was used and the gambling was "simulated", she recognised the potential harm of letting him win, stamping out a seed that he might hold some kind of exceptional luck or skill. I feel like as designers we need to show similar responsibility towards our audiences (or regulators will).

My 2026 prediction is that as devs lean harder into the harmful aesthetics and mechanisms of an explicitly addictive industry, the escalating arms race of indie gambling "simulators" will quietly rot games from the inside out. It's wild how the scourge of Loot Boxes faded from memory so quickly.

Joshua Rivera@jmrivera.bsky.social

Talked a bit about this for my submission to the culture journalist podcast’s 2026 predictions but the new cool is in offline objects and spaces you can post online evidence of participating in. theculturejournalist.substack.com/p/2026-cultu...

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I really, really hope I'm wrong with this one, would be curious to hear what folks think. This isn't intended as a sleight against devs turning to these mechanics, I can both be appreciative of the design and critical that simulated gambling holds harmful potential. We just need to talk about this!

Personal anecdote: I went to a wedding a couple of years ago for family relative and there was a free roulette table. My teenage relative had won lots of chips and was on track to get the top winnings. So the croupier quietly handed us out extra chips to bet to ensure he didn't come out on top.

My 2026 prediction is that as devs lean harder into the harmful aesthetics and mechanisms of an explicitly addictive industry, the escalating arms race of indie gambling "simulators" will quietly rot games from the inside out. It's wild how the scourge of Loot Boxes faded from memory so quickly.

Joshua Rivera@jmrivera.bsky.social

Talked a bit about this for my submission to the culture journalist podcast’s 2026 predictions but the new cool is in offline objects and spaces you can post online evidence of participating in. theculturejournalist.substack.com/p/2026-cultu...

I've heard from multiple devs dealing with publishers prioritising signing gambling games, clearly chasing coat tails of Clover Pit and Balatro. If the broader market follows suit, it's only a matter of time till free to play devs clone an indie hit with real, paid gambling and harm escalates.

I worked on my final indie game, MORSE on and off for ten years, it's been moderately successful (to a point I could feasibly make something else) but I'm at peace with never making a game that big ever again. Looking forward to making much, much smaller experiences for audiences outside of games.

any time a successful indie game is made by someone with a totally unhealthy relationship to work and no work/life balance it just creates that expectation for everyone else. you can't make an art scene off of people who are isolating and torturing themselves with work

I am very grateful to have closure on that project last year and I'm loving nurturing the community and game post-launch, but I can't put myself through that process again. I tell students "you have a certain number of games left in you" (and that number can go down), so I'm taking my own advice!

Absolutely wonderful construction from Adam for MORSE! It's such a delight seeing these electronics projects come into form and the methodical documentation that comes with it.

Adam I@adam.iannaz.zone

Check it out! I made a fully 3d printable iambic paddle for MORSE by @alexvscoding.bsky.social. tl;dr: print the case parts, paddles, and get 3 low-profile keyboard switches and an Arduino Pro Micro for running QMK. I would love feedback, and it's fully open-source: github.com/jiannazzone/...